


Mortarion's Men

by Lightbringer34



Category: Warhammer 40.000
Genre: Other, life inside the Eye of Terror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:40:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25272544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lightbringer34/pseuds/Lightbringer34
Summary: A Traitor Guardsmen shares his story about encountering the Death Guard. It's not what you'd expect.
Kudos: 13





	Mortarion's Men

**Author's Note:**

> This is more one scene than a story, but I couldn't figure out where to take it.

Overheard in “Khorne’s Teeth” a popular bar on Rynoth IV, mustering world inside the Eye of Terror.

“Now listen ‘ere Malben, you whining rat! My regiment was on Cadia during the Shiny Bastard’s last Great Crusade and I’m telling you, if'n you say another word about Milord Moration or his Guard, I’ll kick your teeth all the way to Khorne’s brassy throne! Sure, they take an awful long time to get to the front, and yeah, they spend their time out on them agri-worlds, but I’m telling ya, you ain’t seen an Astartes fight until you’ve seen the Death Guard!”  
“Yeah, yeah Ogden, we’ve all heard the stories. Faster than a daemonette an’ can benchpress a Baneblade, we’ve all heard about the Astartes. Settle down and’ have another pint.”

“No I ain’t! I ain’t gonna sit down until I get this through that thick skull of yours! Now shaddup and listen:

"We were dropped in early in the defense, about a month in, but the place already looked like it had been fought over for twice as long. Buildings in ruins, tumbling down this way and that at every rumble of a Basilisk shell. Streets clogged with broken cars, fires smoldering in power stations, the place was a real Nurgle-dammed shithole.

Anyway, the Shiny Bastard had decided to give the Ravens their turn at killing some traitors, so we’d been picked off squad by squad, man by man ever since we’d entered the outskirts of the city. By midday, the sergeant wouldn’t leave the Kharn Raider, the assault tank we’d had to use as a command post. Not that any one of us blamed him. We kept hearing the woosh of jump packs, always close by and never where we could see them. Then I’d turn around and the radio operator was gone, just his legs still standing there, severed at the hip. Man, we were spooked and spooked good. I think the only reason we all didn’t turn and get the hell outta there was because nobody wanted to be the first to run, the first to make themselves more of a target than they were already.

Every moment we kept breathing, kept choking on the dust and toxic fumes of burning tires was a moment we were still alive. I kept us moving up, ruin by ruin, floor by floor, always keeping an eye out for suspicious shadows or the boxy shape of a missile launcher aiming for the vehicles in the street below us. We found little things, bootprints in the dust, an empty bolter magazine, even a steaming cup of recaf that I swear the bastards left there just to taunt us. Berg shrugged and drank some of it then passed it to his mates.

Man, in hindsight that was the stupidest fucking thing we did that day. I never should’ve let him do it. It was the Khorne-dammed Ravens, they weren’t going to throw us a feast just for the fun of it! Of course, I don’t blame the kid or his mates. We hadn’t eaten anything like a meal in weeks. Some of us were already down to shoe leather. So the kid drank it and it was, of course, poisoned. He went mad, started shooting at all of us, shouting that we were the Ravens in disguise.

His las shots killed Nick, Arty, and wounded Claire, lit up the building like he’d painted the Ravens a welcome sign. Somebody had just shot the poor bastard in the throat and the back wall disentegrated as one of the Ravens came flapping in to finish the job. All I could see were his helmet’s eyes, glowing red through all the dust and I knew that this was the end for me. I muttered a prayer to Father Nurgle and aimed my lasrifle, just as a bone-deep rumble started up outside, followed by the harsh chatter of a heavy bolter.

The Raven jolted as the shots hit him in the back and he turned around, splattering Merkel as the dumb bastard tried to charge the Astartes with his bayonet. The Raven went to fire his jump pack just as I leaped up to try and have a go at his helmet seals. I remember from training the advice they gave about how to fight Astartes: fire en masse at the joints of his armor and hope something breaks through.

Well they were right, Tzneetch’s wisdom upon them, because I managed to get my knife into one of the pipes while the Raven was lifting off. I didn’t expect him to take me with into the air, but I hung on anyway. That’s when I lost the leg, the jump pack flames burnt right through the muscle and fat.  
(gestures at the augmentic attached to his thigh, rusted steel and carved with a crude rune of the Death Guard)

Now, I figured I wasn’t long for this world anyhow, so I started sawing away at the Raven’s jump pack, hoping to break something important, maybe kill this self-important servile bastard with me. He reached up and I could feel his lightning claw just above my head, trying to find something to slice and kill. But he didn’t have time, because the marine on the Land Raider below me opened up again on him with the Heavy Bolter in midair and nearly cut him in half. Of course, I was on the top half of the bastard, the half that was heading right towards the Land Raider so I figured that getting crushed on impact was in my future. I could see the Death Guard getting larger and larger as he let go of the heavy bolster and climbed out of the turret. I closed my eyes and prepared for death.

The marine caught me. Just scooped me out of the air and off the dead Raven like we were playing baseball and he’d caught the outfield pass. Before I had time to do anything more than gape, he propped me in the turret of the tank, patted me on the back, and handed me the heavy bolter. His voice was surprisingly high, even through the helmet’s growl. "Hold this for a moment son.”

I followed his gaze and saw the four remaining Ravens swooping towards us on their jump packs, chainblades already roaring and bolt pistols aimed. The Death Guard made to reach down into the tank, but shook his head and straightened. “Not enough time.” As soon as the Ravens got within range, I pulled the triggers on the bolter, jerking my body back and forth, trying to hit at least one.

I shouldn’t have bothered, 'cause I missed with every shot. But the Astartes was ready. As they passed overhead he crouched and leaped. Six feet straight up in full battle plate! (Laughter) Oh I wish I’d seen the looks on the Raven’s faces! He grabbed one of them by the waist and just started wailing on the bastard, no technique at all.

“Did the Ravens crash?”

'Course the Ravens crashed, you ninny! You’ve got an Astartes hanging offa ya you’re gonna crash!They came down in the street on the other side of the Land Raider and I scrambled over to see what was going on. Bled all over the roof of the Land Raider too, that didn’t please the Death Guard too much. Anyway, when I finally dragged my fat arse over to see, it was pretty much over. The Raven still had his chainsword and he kept slamming it into the Guard’s torso, trying to cut all the way through and kill him.

He’d already mostly succeeded, there were Astartes guts all over the place and his legs were about ten inches further away from the rest of him, but that Death Guard wouldn’t let go. He’d just locked both hands around the Raven’s face and kept squeezing harder and harder. They’d both lost their helmets in the crash and I could see their faces, both pale. The Death Guard from blood loss and the Raven 'cause they’re creepy bastards that way. I thought for sure the Raven was going to win, because he just kept chopping away, but the Guard was hanging’ on like they was the only two left in all the Siege, just would not give up. The Raven’s head popped like an egg full of brains and only then did the Death Guard let go. He even had the gall to give me a thumbs-up before he died.

So that’s why I won’t tolerate none of your guff Malben. That’s why they’re called the fuckin' Death Guard. They get there before us, man the walls and halls of the Gods so the Emperor can’t steal our precious souls to torture for all eternity. That’s why I’m a Death Guard man now. For Moration, now and forever!”


End file.
